A lawyered up Michelle Wu, her baby close by, defended the city’s sanctuary city law in what seemed like a deposition-like congressional hearing that could lead to legal or funding repercussions against Boston down the line.

How many potholes in the city could you fill with that $650,000 legal advice she was getting?

The much-hyped hearing, Wu’s first time on the national stage, turned out not to be so much of a show but more of a light roasting of the mayor and three other city mayors aimed at getting them to admit under oath they weren’t honoring ICE detainers or following federal immigration law.

The line of questioning was an attempt to force Wu and others on the record to use as a basis to sue them, cut their funding or even pursue obstruction of justice criminal charges.

Asked whether the city would refuse to turn an illegal immigrant over to federal immigration officers, Wu refused to answer directly and tried to dance.

“I take that as a yes,” Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said.

The answer from her $950 an hour lawyers sitting behind her didn’t quite work there for Wu.

Wu, however, did not appear flustered at any time during the long hearing and instead went on the attack against the committee and immigration czar Tom Homan. She’s not likely to get any flak in her re-election campaign because of her performance and in fact her rival Josh Kraft agrees with her on immigration policy.

“Shame on (Homan) for lying about my city,” Wu said in response to Homan’s threat to “bring hell” to Boston. “Bring him here under oath and let’s ask him some questions.”

Wu’s scripted answer seemed like it came from her political advisers but her fiery speech making may not in the long run turn out to be smart. Homan is in the position to penalize the city severely for not following federal immigration policy.

So while Wu will come out of the hearing high-fiving with her sycophantic supporters in the media and at City Hall, in the end it won’t be a victory if she or the city doesn’t escape legal trouble.

The only time Wu looked especially bad was when she admitted she didn’t know how many illegal immigrants were living in Boston or what the cost was to city taxpayers to take care of them.

The entire hearing was miscast as some kind of show and was in fact a legal trap aimed at getting the mayors of Boston, Denver, Chicago and New York in hot water. It’s why Wu spent $950 an hour on lawyers preparing for the gig.

Republican committee members seemed aimed at getting the mayors to admit violating the law by not prosecuting illegal immigrants or honoring civil detention orders.

Democratic lawmakers like Ayanna Pressley and Stephen Lynch, as expected, lobbed softball questions at Wu and tried to undermine the entire hearing.

But Republicans aggressively went on the attack, with Rep. Nancy Mace calling Wu a “hypocrite” and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna vowing to request that the Department of Justice open an investigation into the mayors for policies that violate federal law.

Wu at another point responded angrily to another Republican lawmaker who criticized the mayor for offering condolences to the family of the knife-wielding attacker who was shot and killed by an off duty police officer at the Chick-fil-A in Back Bay.

“Check your facts, check your facts,” she said.

Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., presides over a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing with Sanctuary City Mayors on Capitol Hill, Wednesday. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)